THE cost of certificates of entitlement (COEs) for cars surged to reach a four-month high yesterday despite an expanded quota.
COE price for cars up to 1,600cc and 130bhp rose by 1.2 per cent to end at $47,889 despite a 9.3 per cent increase in supply of certificates for the May-July quota period.
COE cost for cars above 1,600cc or 130bhp rose by 2.8 per cent to close at $51,010 despite a 21 per cent increase in supply of certificates.
Both premiums are now at their highest since January.
But the cost of Open COE, which can be used for any vehicle type but ends up mostly for bigger cars, finished 1 per cent lower at $49,000.
Motor traders said buying interest whipped up by the annual Cars @ Expo contributed to the bidding frenzy. Organiser Singapore Press Holdings estimated 1,400 cars were sold at the event two weekends ago.
But the bids-to-quota ratio yesterday was lower at 1.6, compared with 1.7 at the previous tender two weeks ago.
This indicates that even though there were fewer bids, the value of bids was higher.
One reason for this is the boom in the private-hire sector, fuelled by companies such as Uber, Grab and SMRT.
At yesterday’s tender, Uber-owned Lion City Rental was successful in all its 90 bids in the Open category with bids as high as $50,902.
Meanwhile, commercial vehicle COE price fell by 1.6 per cent to close at a four-month low of $42,302. Motorcycle premium slid 3.1 per cent to finish at a six-month low of $6,302.
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